She's a Fair Cop

In Life on Mars sequel Ashes to Ashes, it’s the Eighties and dinosaur DCI Gene Hunt is under the heel of time-travelling Keeley Hawes. How did they fare with the last of the New Romantics?

One of Britain’s most versatile character actors, Philip Glenister, 44, is best known for his performance as DCI Gene Hunt alongside John Simm in the hit time-travel cop series Life on Mars. In the sequel, Ashes to Ashes, Hunt has swapped Manchester for London, 1981, and has replaced his Seventies Ford Cortina with and Audi Quattro. Glenister, the son of a TV cameraman turned dircector, lives in East Sheen, southwest London, with his wife, actress Beth Goddard, and their two children.

Keeley Hawes, 31, has been one of Britain’s most in-demand actresses since starring as a member of MI5 in BBC1’s Spooks. The daughter of a London cabbie, she went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Her acting breakthrough came when she was cast in Dennis Potter’s Karaoke in 1996. In Ashes to Ashes, she plays DI Alex Drake, a single mother who finds herself sent back from the present to 1981. She lives in North London with her husband, actor Matthew Macfadyen, and her three children.

Philip Glenister: All my memories of the Eighties revolve around pubs. I was 18 in 1981 and completely preoccupied with learning to drink and attempting to lose my virginity. It was the age when I realised I was old enough to be completely hedonistic. Every chance we got, me and my mates would head straight down the pub

Keeley Hawes: The Eighties was a bonkers decade and should be celebrated for that. I think it’s time that it was considered cool. The whole decade is routinely written off as naff, but I think its time has come.

PG: I’d like to pretend I had the coolest musical taste, but I’d be lying. I was totally uncool in the Eighties. When The Smiths and The Pogues were happening I was still listening to my old Genesis and Pink Floyd albums. My one concession to coolness was doing the nutty dance to Madness’s One Step Beyond. But you wouldn’t have called it cool if you could have seen me.

KH: My idea of contemporary music is Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven is a Place on Earth. However, nobody captures the spirit of the Eighties quite like Madonna. I spent a large part of that decade dancing around my bedroom to songs like Borderline, Luck Star and Like A Virgin. Musically, I’m still stuck in that era. I haven’t got a clue about modern bands. The most recent band I like is Bucks Fizz.

PG: I drew the line at dressing up as a pirate. I was too cowardly to be a proper New Romantic, but I would mince down the high street wearing very tight pin-stripe jeans, pixie boots, an RAF flying jacket and a multi coloured neckerchief. People wearing all sorts of daft gear in the early Eighties so I never really stood out. Adam Ant had taken dressing up to a whole other level and everything seemed quite normal after that.

KH: My sister’s white denim boiler suit was the coolest thing ever. It’s one of my first memories of the Eighties – I thought she was completely rocking. Wham!’s Last Christmas video was the height of style. Fashion in the Eighties was far better than people make out. You look at George Michale and Andrew Ridgely in that decade and they look great. The best thing about the Eighties was that men weren’t embarrassed to slap on make-up and look like girls, I absolutely approve of that sort of thing. Steve Strange still tours with his make-up on and you have to applaud him.

PG: I had the hairstyle from hell. At 17, my mate decided to become a hairdresser and needed someone to practise on, so I volunteered. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot as it happened. I came out with this cross between a wedge and a mullet. My mum still has the picture in a frame. It’s a truly shocking sight.

KH: I’m quite capable of loving a man with a mullet. My husband has a role in one episode of Ashes to Ashes and wears the most ridiculous mullet. It’s more a case of the mullet wearing him. But he still looked incredibly handsome. Having said that, I would have worried if he’d decided to keep it.

PG: Since Life on Mars, I receive suggestive letters saying, ‘If you’ve ever in Rhyl and fancy a quickie…’ It was the biggest shock of my life to find out that Gene Hunt had become this massive sex symbol. I have to keep reminding myself that it is the character they fancy, not me.

KH: Women want a real man like Gene Hunt. You’d be hard pushed to find a woman who didn’t fancy him. He’s incredibly attractive in that no-nonsense, purely masculine way. When Life on Mars came along, I think the ladies were bored with the whole New Man thing. They looked at Gene ad saw someone who was not afraid to be all man.

PG: When you’re a randy 18 year old make, women look great whatever they’re wearing. That eould explain the fact that I fancied Dallas’s Victoria Principal something rotten.

KH: I used to really fancy the blokes from Bucks Fizz. And I had massive crushed on River Phoenix and Ralph Macchio from The Karate Kid. I’d say my taste in men has definitely improved since the Eighties.

PG: All coppers loved Life on Mars. The reactions were amazingly positive. Not a single policeman came up to me and said, ‘It wasn’t like that in real life’. Quite the opposite. In fact, every copper I’ve met has said to me that they know someone who knew someone exactly like Gene Hunt. That said, even I’m not entirely sure how Life on Mars ended. A lot of people seemed very confused, but I think it’s easily explainable. My reading of it is that Sam Tyler dies when he jumps off the building and what came after that was not real. But I could be completely wrong.

KH: One of my favourite scenes in Ashes to Ashes is where I punch Gene in the face. As an actor, it’s always satisfying to something physical and I made the most of it. A good fight scene makes your heart pump faster and gets the adrenaline going.

PG: The Ford Cortina Mk III GXL from Life on Mars is dead. In fact, it’s been sold off for charity. In Ashes to Ashes, Gene drives a red Audi Quattro – it’s one of those cool cars you used to see on World of Sport in the rallying. Expect to see it involved in plenty of high-octant ca chases that end with crashed into piles of cardboard boxes.

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